Bonville Inheritance
Cecily Bonville was born on or about 30 June 1460 at Shute Manor in Shute near Axminster, Devon, England. She was the only child and heiress of William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington of Aldingham and Lady Katherine Neville, a younger sister of military commander Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick known to history as "Warwick the Kingmaker". Her family had acquired the barony of Harington through the marriage of her paternal grandfather, William Bonville, to Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of William Harington, 5th Baron Harington of Aldingham.
When Cecily was just six months old, both her father, Lord Harington, and grandfather, William Bonville, were executed following the disastrous Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460. The Bonvilles, having fought with the Yorkist contingent, were shown no mercy from the victorious troops of the Queen of England, Margaret of Anjou (consort of Henry VI), who headed the Lancastrian faction, and were thus swiftly decapitated on the battlefield. Cecily's maternal grandfather, Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury was also executed after the battle which had been commanded on the Lancastrian side by Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, while Richard, 3rd Duke of York, had led the Yorkists and was consequently slain in the fighting. Queen Margaret was in Scotland at the time raising support for her cause, so had not been present at Wakefield. The deaths of her father and grandfather made Cecily heir apparent to her great-grandfather, William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville, thus being one of few female heirs apparent in English history.
In less than two months, the Yorkists suffered another major defeat at the Second Battle of St Albans on 17 February 1461, and the Lancastrian army's commander Margaret of Anjou, in an act of vengeance, personally ordered the execution of Cecily's great-grandfather, Baron Bonville the next day. These executions left Cecily Bonville, the wealthiest heiress in England, having inherited numerous estates in the West Country, as well as manors in Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland. She succeeded to the title of suo jure 7th Baroness Harington of Aldingham, on 30 December 1460, and the suo jure title of 2nd Baroness Bonville, on 18 February 1461.
Read more about this topic: Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington
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